Epoxy functional compounds are known in this art and employed in a wide range of applications and formulations. Examples of such applications and formulations comprise automotive and industrial adhesives/sealants, corrosion resistance coatings, films and paints, pre-preg, tapes, hand lay-up structural composites, among other applications.
It is known in this art to employ curing agents to control crossing linking of epoxy functional compounds. Typical epoxy curing ingredients include amine, polyamide, acid functional, dicyandiamide, polysulfides, anhydrides, melamine, urea, and imidizole compounds. Formulations containing such epoxy curing agents can be heat activated. While these curing agents are effective at curing epoxy functional compounds, formulations containing these curing agents can have decreased shelf stability when catalysts are included, e.g., catalysts to decrease activation temperature. Conventional curing agents may also be environmentally undesirable.
There is a need in this art for a curing agent for a polymeric system that results in a cured system having improved shrinkage, clear or no color, lower curing temperature, shelf stability, less charring, increased hardness, among other properties not achieved by conventional curing agents.